Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Posted: 08/22/11

The hallmarks of Deus Ex--stealth, shooting, and shades--reemerge in Human Revolution. Combining cybernetics with a healthy dose of noir has resulted in a network of systems propped up to support an ambitious design that holds player choice in high regard. Eidos Montreal wants all types to jack-in. But is this revolution also an evolution?

The events of Deus Ex play out almost exclusively at night. Taking the roll of Adam Jensen, security chief at Sarif Industries, a maker of augmentations that let you be more human than human. Tensions between the cybernetic haves and have-nots are on the rise when Sarif's HQ is attacked. Scientists are slaughtered and Adam is wounded only to be saved by advanced augmentation. From there, it's a detective story, brimming with conspiracy, choice, and plenty of subtext--as well as actual text. You'll be scouring nooks and crannies for Nooks and Kindles, reading emails and diary entries aplenty that throw fictive gloss onto the world stage, right down to the otherwise anonymous soldiers and hoodlums you take down. It's a wordy world with dark skies overhead. Some twists are expected while others come out of left field, usually more goofy than clever. There are some callbacks to past games, even though Human Revolution takes place before them. The gravelly voices and gloomy ambiance feel like they're turning to pastiche later on, despite the earnest intentions. Deus Ex's split heritage between shooters and RPGs offers the dense world of the latter without softening the pace of the former.

Between long, multileveled missions and two sizeable, explorable hubs lay the secrets behind the deadly attacks on Sarif Industries. Jensen has to use his arsenal and abilities to infiltrate and extract, with a myriad of options as to how to reach his goals. Waypoints tell you where you need to head, but getting there is up to you.

The game's building blocks--security cameras, bots, hacks, patrols, air ducts, laser alarms, turrets, electrified water, and more air ducts--are varied enough, though given its length, which can stretch into the 20 hour mark, you'll see it all play out again and again. The hacks become more difficult, soldiers will erratically pivot more often, and the air ducts might be obscured, but there's a needling sense of déjà vu in Deus Ex. Even the structures seem fairly similar, though the hubs of Detroit and Hengsha do differentiate themselves in both style and substance. This is a smart game, but it's just too eager to please, spoiling some of the joys of intuition.

In the beginning, it's all about using a blend of stealth and shooting, where you're showered with XP for ghostly permutations, and given stingy stipends for kills. The game does offer a large degree of freedom but wears its preference for stealth on its sleeve. Get enough XP and you can start decking out your body in all sorts of ways.

The freedom of choice comes in via loosely integrated subsystems, some amounting to integrated minigames, like an LA Noire-style conversation system where reading alpha waves takes precedence over studying poker faces. Locked doors can be bullied, coerced or hacked open. The hacking game is actually entertaining, though can be ignored most of the time, while still scaling in difficulty for those who want to take part and spend upgrades to become an elite hacker.

You're also given choice when it comes to how you eliminate your opposition. Stealthy take-downs are always a tempting tactic, though going out guns blazing will likely get you dropped fast. There can be consequences, both dire and advantageous, based on your choices, which will funnel even more wonderment onto those who want to explore all of the game's permutations. There are some missteps, however, with tedious boss fights that suffer from serious tunnel vision, though you can talk your way out of some encounters. Side-quests also tend to be on the weak side, not too surprisingly, lacking the "cool" factor and scope of the campaign missions, and they frequently involve tedious backtracking.

Being a cyborg is akin to being a Swiss army knife. While at first Jensen can only focus on one discipline at a time, there's plenty of room to go deep as well as wide once the experience starts coming in. There's a bit of a rub, though. It's too easy to find yourself hacking into a room that you've already stolen the password for, not to mention infiltrated via one of the numerous air ducts littered throughout the world.

Removing Human Revolution's augmented RPG-soul leaves a shooter carapace, and it's solid, if a tad hollow. Cover works well, shifting the view to third-person with the ability to blind fire, round corners and sprint to the next obstruction. There's a wide variety of weapons you can upgrade, though limited inventory space means you'll want to commit to a choice few that fit your style. Enemy AI is all over the place. They have great aim, making the cover system a necessity if you set off alarms or otherwise alert them to your presence. But small infractions that give up your last known whereabouts showcase the AI as gumshoes with an insect's attention span, and for every ledge they leap to investigate, there are twenty doors they won't open or crates they won't peek over. Jensen certainly comes off as a badass, and it's a pity there's often a schism between his superhuman capabilities and the remedial efforts of his opponents, who despite their deadly aim and swarming numbers, end up feeling like vanilla adversaries by mid-game.

Human Revolution sees art design and technical prowess waging a not-so-invisible war. There's an immense world, carefully laid out with a clear vision of towering tenements and stinky sewers. It's populated with grit, grime, and some incredibly awkward looking denizens. Perhaps augmentation adds some unnatural mechanics to human movement, because these folks can look pretty jarring, and when paired with their garish faces, they'll break you out of the game's very determined and realized reality. The voice acting hits the stereotypes pretty hard, but fits the genre bill more often than not, while the electric synths of the soundtrack make the world hum with energy. Deus Ex evokes the uncanny valley more often than it should, and while that may be apropos for its cybernetic citizens, it's more irksome than endearing.

The Human Revolution should be televised--from your couch or computer chair. Deus Ex offers a good deal of mischief to get into, and it's all backed up by a great stealth system and a solid shooting game. With its variable story, as well as how it encourages you to alter your approach to obstacles, it's also a game that rewards multiple playthroughs. The future is bleak and at times ugly, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

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